James Esper
From San Diego (Car Detailing)
I used to like telling jokes and funny stories when I was little. At some point kids go from running around making sounds they think are funny to trying to tell jokes. The first I tried was probably at summer camp at Palomar. I was eight years old and doing a stand-up routine. It’s not going to be that funny, but it was “What did one dead frog say to the other dead frog? Croak.”
Jonathan Imes
From Mission Valley (Navy)
My first joke had to be an Aggie joke. I’m from Texas. I lived there until I was 18 and came out in the Navy. So we’d make fun of Texas A&M, the Aggies. I was probably around eight at the time, and the joke was “How do you confuse an Aggie? Put him in a round room and tell him to find a corner.
Gretchen Brunette
From Mission Valley (Waitress)
I remember I was really young. Maybe around eight, I don’t know. It wasn’t a joke as much as it was part of a routine. I had heard Rita Rudner and repeated something she said. I didn’t even realize what it meant until years later. I would say, “I don’t plan on growing old gracefully. I’m gonna get face lifts until my ears meet.”
Mal Hall
From San Diego (Comedian)
I actually didn’t tell jokes when I was a kid. So, I’d have to say the first joke I told was a few years ago, when I was 20. I would joke about my eyebrows. As a kid, I wasn’t the class clown. I was a shy nerd. I saw Eddie Murphy’s Raw, and I wanted to make people laugh. So I tell jokes now, but I didn’t back then.
Kevin Ball
From Pacific Beach (Student)
I don’t know if I really remember. Oh, yeah, I remember one my friends and I used to say all the time...we’d say, “Do you want to hear a dirty joke? A boy fell in the mud. Do you want to hear a clean joke? That boy took a shower.” When you’re a kid, you think stuff like that’s funny.
Cookie Randolph
From Encinitas (Radio Personality)
I never told a joke well, but I cracked up my fellow third-graders with my impression of John F. Kennedy. After Dallas, I shrewdly moved to Barney Fife. I also do a killer Ben Franklin. If you closed your eyes you’d swear he was in the room.